Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. (MSC) is the world's second-largest shipping line in terms of container vessel capacity. As a private company it has no obligation to publish annual reports certified by independent parties; as a consequence, the data MSC releases about itself is not verifiable. As of the end of December 2014, MSC was operating 471 container vessels with an intake capacity of 2,435,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU). TheGeneva-headquartered company operates in all major ports of the world. MSC's most important port is Antwerp in Belgium. MSC Cruises is a division of the company focused on holiday cruises.

As one of the world’s leading container shipping lines with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, MSC operates 480 offices across 150 countries worldwide with over 24,000 employees. MSC’s shipping line sails on more than 200 trade routes, calling at over 315 ports.

MSC operates vessels with a capacity of up to 19,244 TEU, including one of the largest container ships, MSC Oscar. The company remains independent and wholly owned by the Aponte family under the leadership of Diego Aponte who was appointed President and CEO by his father and company founder GianLuigi in October 2014.

In May 2014, MSC cruises closed a deal to order two new vessels from the Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieriin a 2.1 billion euro order.

In August 2014, MSC ordered a new cruiseship worth up to EUR 3bn ($4.13bn) from STX France. The Saint-Nazaire yard will build two firm ships for EUR 1.5bn. The first ship is due in the first half of 2017, with the second in the first half of 2019. The contracts will provide 16m working hours for the French shipbuilder. The order has been on the cards since February, with a vessel size of around 160,000 gt cited. Passenger capacity will be about 4,000 people.

In December 2014 the MSC shipping line ranked number 6 in Lloyd's List Top 100 Most Influential People in Shipping.

In January 2015 MSC launched the largest container ship, MSC Oscar, with a capacity of 19,224 TEU. Registered in Panama, MSC Oscar, built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, joins the Albatross service in January at part of the 2M VSA with Maersk Line. Later in 2015 MSC launched three more container ships of same capacity and named MSC Oliver, MSC Zoe and MSC Maya.